A Professor Says She Was Penalized for an Instructor’s Tweet

An adjunct instructor who was about to begin a job at Montclair State University found himself without a teaching position after he wished online that someone would shoot President Trump. His termination, though controversial, was not surprising. It’s less clear why the director of the program he was supposed to teach in was suddenly out of her job as well.

Fawzia Afzal-Khan, who was director of women and gender studies, said it was her predecessor who chose the adjunct, Kevin Allred. Ms. Afzal-Khan, a professor of English and a university distinguished scholar, said that she had inherited Mr. Allred, and that she hadn’t been aware of his social-media postings.

“Why would they want to get rid of me when I have done a bang-up job in the past?” she said. “The timing of this makes me think obviously there’s something in which I am being scapegoated.”

In a statement to The Chronicle, a Montclair State spokeswoman, Erika Bleiberg, didn’t directly address the change in the director position but did praise the credentials of Ms. Afzal-Khan, who remains as a professor. She has been at the New Jersey institution for nearly three decades.

“Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan is a well-respected member of the Montclair State University faculty and she has been well supported by the university in her academic and research endeavors,” Ms. Bleiberg said. “The provost requested that she return full-time to the faculty in her home department of English. This was simply a matter of assignment for the coming academic year, and that assignment includes an opportunity for Professor Afzal-Khan to teach in the program of gender, sexuality and women studies.” The university declined to comment further.

Colleges occasionally criticize scholars or lecturers whose controversial remarks attract negative attention. But it wasn’t Ms. Afzal-Khan who made the remarks about President Trump. Her case may well demonstrate how an internet mob can disrupt the lives of more than just its target.

Ms. Afzal-Khan said she was chosen in April to serve as director of Montclair State’s gender program, a position she has held twice before in the past decade.

Her predecessor, Julie Farnum, had arranged to hire Mr. Allred, and Ms. Afzal-Khan was following through on that decision, she said.

Mr. Allred, emails show, had been scheduled to teach two courses at Montclair State. Ms. Afzal-Khan spoke with him and had been prepared to bring him on board in July. She had talked with him under the assumption that Ms. Farnum had vetted him.

But she was unaware of Mr. Allred’s history at Rutgers University at New Brunswick, where he had been an adjunct instructor, though the university had severed that relationship after he made online comments about the Second Amendment and flag burning.

In an email to Ms. Afzal-Khan on August 8, Ms. Farnum said she had been unaware of any issues with Mr. Allred’s past employment. “He presented a CV indicating that he was qualified,” Ms. Farnum wrote. “I also sent you his CV. I did not know anything about his problems at Rutgers.”

Ms. Farnum did not respond to emails requesting comment. Mr. Allred told The Chronicle that he didn’t recall speaking about Rutgers with Ms. Farnum, and that he had spoken only generally about it with her.

A Tweet’s Impact?

There was no indication that Mr. Allred’s performance at Rutgers would affect his standing with Montclair, especially on July 28. That’s when he posted a message on Twitter that read, in part, “I wish someone would just shoot him outright,” referring to President Trump.

The backlash was immediate as word spread on conservative news media. Mr. Allred made his remarks on a Friday, and on Monday, Montclair State notified him that it would not be offering him employment after all.

That email came from dean Robert Friedman, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Ms. Afzal-Khan said that she had tried to stay out of the fracas, and that the university was within its rights to cancel Mr. Allred’s contract.

She began her work at director in the summer. Someone else had originally been slated for the job, she noted. “It’s just very difficult to be these positions and then do things with very little resources that are constantly being cut,” she said.

The decision to cancel Mr. Allred’s employment in the women and gender-studies program added to Ms. Afzal-Khan’s challenges. Suddenly she was out an instructor who had been scheduled to teach two classes. She wrote to Mr. Friedman, asking for more resources, and thought that an August 3 meeting with her supervisors was to discuss bringing on additional instructors.

Instead, the meeting with Mr. Friedman and Kenneth Sumner, an acting associate provost, was to discuss her leaving the director position. She said she was told that she “hadn’t done anything wrong,” but that the university’s president, Susan A. Cole, had issued a “decree” following the media frenzy associated with Mr. Allred.

“I was completely taken aback and in shock,” Ms. Afzal-Khan said.

She said she was told she was removed from the position because the administration had long wanted to take a different approach in the program. In a letter to the provost, Willard Gingerich, Ms. Afzal-Khan wrote, “The reason you provided for what is clearly a public put-down, humiliation and insult to my professional standing and reputation: ‘we just want a change in leadership, and possibly a change in the direction of the program itself.’ Why? You didn’t say.”

Emails to Mr. Friedman, Mr. Sumner, and Mr. Gingerich seeking to verify Ms. Afzal-Khan’s assertions went unanswered. The university provided its statement praising Ms. Azfal-Khan in response to an inquiry about whether she had been directed to step down at the urging of the president.

Ms. Afzal-Khan told The Chronicle that she felt Montclair State’s administrators were being disingenuous about their motives for asking her to step down. She said she feels targeted because she is a woman of color and Muslim.

“Why I am the one being dismissed?” she asked.

Ideally, she said, she would like to be reinstated in the position and given an apology.

Instead, the university in a letter said it would give her a one-time payment of $5,000. The letter said she would teach three courses. As program director, she noted, she would have taught two courses.

Others appear to share Ms. Afzal-Khan’s questions. In an email, a fellow professor wrote to her and included the statement, “I am very sorry that you seem to be unjustly catching the heat for other people’s actions.”

Several alumni and students also signed a letter addressed to the president that inquired about Ms. Afzal-Khan’s departure.

“Is there any merit to these rumors about Dr. Khan being asked to step down from her role as program director?” the letter reads. “We hope not, but if so, we would appreciate any information regarding this decision that you can provide to us.”

It’s unclear if the university responded to the inquiry.

Mr. Allred, for his part, said he was upset at the treatment of Ms. Azfal-Khan. “It’s awful that this is somehow coming back to affect her negatively.”

Chris Quintana is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.